How to store a crankshaft?
- Thread starter CARTMAN
- Start date
C
coach
Guest
Grease it. Wrap it. Stand it on flexplate end and strap it do it can't fall over.
Buick Mark
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2001
yep
PEVERT!!!!
To be serious though, to keep a crank safe it needs to be kept in suspension. Either held from the flywheel end or the nose so nothing will stress it.
C
coach
Guest
Hey Charlie,PEVERT!!!!
To be serious though, to keep a crank safe it needs to be kept in suspension. Either held from the flywheel end or the nose so nothing will stress it.
You could debate this a million ways. I agree suspending it would be ok too, but not so its off the floor. Just enough to take about half the weight off the flange its resting on. The totally suspend it would only increase the stress on everything in reverse and stretch the grain of the forging. I would much rather see it just standing then hanging. It will stretch...thats a fact, but it will not displace material just sitting on the flange. Also...to be absolutely safe...store it at 68 degrees...not 69 and not 67...
Im being serious.Mine are standing up on the flexplate end with flexplates bolted to them so they won't fall over
Gravity acts on it either way, if it's hanging or standing. Way better than laying on its side though. In the ideal situation it'd stay in the block with the main bearings supporting it.
Gravity acts on it either way, if it's hanging or standing. Way better than laying on its side though. In the ideal situation it'd stay in the block with the main bearings supporting it.
novaderrik
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 12, 2004
how do the aftermarket crankshaft companies package and store the cranks they make?
novaderrik
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 12, 2004
but how do they ship them, and how do they tell their distributors and customers to store them?
It only warps after a long period of time. Like a shotgun or a rifle. That's why they are also store standing upright. Shipping one well packaged is fine.
Next time your in a machine shop notice all the cranks. They are all standing upright.
D
I wouldn't be worried that a cast iron crank will warp significantly from setting under its own weight for any reasonable length of time. A few months back I started a chevy truck whose crank had been loaded (by the alternator , p.s belts) and setting in the same position for the last 12 years. If warping were really an issue, then that crank should have been bent to the point that turning the pulleys at 3-4 thousand RPM would cause some serious problems. I can assure you it ran normally.
That scenario is different than when a crank is loose on the floor. The main bearings will support it and the tension from the belt doesn't have enough leverage to make it warp. I've never personally seen or known of a warped crank, but 50 million elvis fans can't be wrong.
To give you an idea of how flexable cast iron can be, if you leave a mill table on one side rather than centered for more than a week it can ruin the table and have to be rebuilt because the table will droop on the long side.
I think that there is significantly more leverage on the crank from the accessory belts than when the thing is just setting on the floor.
You can try this yourself, but with a 3.8 buick crank setting horizontally on the floor it is pretty easy to push down on the accessory end on the crank so that it pivots on the 1st counterweight and lifts the flywheel side completely off the ground. The only way to have this much leverage on a crank while storing it is to put the snout in a hole and have the other end completely cantilevered. Any sane way of storing a crank on the ground will have less than half of this leverage.
I actually measured the force needed to pivot up a 3.8 buick crank with a scale at 49 lb. This force was distributed over the whole snout up to the 1st main bearing. I am pretty sure that I tightened the belts on that chevy 10 years ago tighter than this 49 lb ( with a prybar), also there is at least 2 belts so double that. With the crank pulley mounted to the end of the crank, there is significant additional distance and leverage (probably at least 2" more), so maybe even double it again. No matter how I look at it I think it is fair to say that there is significantly more leverage on the crank snout from the accessory belts than when a crank is laying on the floor.
Plus the crank was loaded like this for over a decade and did not warp.
I've heard that before too, but I think they just tell us this to teach us good etiquette (Ever since I didn't go blind I have a hard time believing some of these things
. After all, who wants to come over to a mill and find it completely to ones side? I couldn't find it in the bridgeport manual either. www.truetex.com/bridgeport-manual.pdf, but admittedly didn't read every last line.That aforementioned Buick crank has been setting on its side for months now, so I guess I'll soon find out for sure. I have always stored on side before (harder to knock them over that way) so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it!
I installed the crank last night immediately after it had been setting on its side for the last few months. I tried to check "warpage" with a dial indicator rotating on the main bearings without the caps installed. Unfortunately my gauge stem was no long enough to clear the counterweights... so I gave up. Nothing seemed amiss visually, so I torqued down the main bearing caps and it rotated freely. If it was warped at all, it couldn’t be much.
